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Inadvertent TraditionalismOrientalism and the Self-Presentations of Polish Jewish Women Immigrants to Israel in the 1950s

Inadvertent TraditionalismOrientalism and the Self-Presentations of Polish Jewish Women... In Israel, Middle Eastern women are read as more “traditional” than European women. Yet life-story interviews conducted for this article reveal that elderly Polish Jewish women self-present as traditionally feminine—emphasizing home-centeredness, passivity, modesty, self-sacrifice, and delicateness—in ways a matched group of Iraqis do not. The article shows that these presentations are a by-product of how Poles assert Western identity. They claim Westernness by emphasizing continuity between their current behaviors and ideals and those they were taught in upper-class 1930s Europe, including feminine ideals. They see these behaviors as European and are inattentive to potential links with traditionalism. The discussion focuses on this finding in light of arguments that for women classified as Western, being on the “liberated” side of Orientalist contrasts can render gender invisible, enabling reproduction of gender inequality. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Duke University Press

Inadvertent TraditionalismOrientalism and the Self-Presentations of Polish Jewish Women Immigrants to Israel in the 1950s

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Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies
ISSN
1552-5864
eISSN
1558-9579
DOI
10.1215/15525864-7273692
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In Israel, Middle Eastern women are read as more “traditional” than European women. Yet life-story interviews conducted for this article reveal that elderly Polish Jewish women self-present as traditionally feminine—emphasizing home-centeredness, passivity, modesty, self-sacrifice, and delicateness—in ways a matched group of Iraqis do not. The article shows that these presentations are a by-product of how Poles assert Western identity. They claim Westernness by emphasizing continuity between their current behaviors and ideals and those they were taught in upper-class 1930s Europe, including feminine ideals. They see these behaviors as European and are inattentive to potential links with traditionalism. The discussion focuses on this finding in light of arguments that for women classified as Western, being on the “liberated” side of Orientalist contrasts can render gender invisible, enabling reproduction of gender inequality.

Journal

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2019

References

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    Abu-Lughod, Lila
  • Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others
    Abu-Lughod, Lila
  • The Binary Ethnic Classification and the Economic Assimilation of First and Second Generation Immigrants in the Israeli Labor Market
    Amit, Karin
  • War, Resisting the West, and Women’s Labor: Toward an Understanding of Arab Exceptionalism
    Angrist, Michele
  • The Project of Modernity and Women in Turkey
    Arat, Yesim Bozdoğan, Sibel Kaşaba, Resat
  • International Feminism of the Future
    Barlow, Tani
  • ‘He Thought I Would Be like My Mother’: The Silencing of Mizrachi Women in Israeli Inter- and Intra-marriages
    Benjamin, Orly Barash, Tamar
  • ‘They Called Me Bebe Bwana’: A Critical Cultural Study of an Imperial Feminist
    Boisseau, T. J.
  • ‘Are You Trying to Play a White Woman?’: La Mère Patrie and the Female Body in French West Africa
    Boittin, Jennifer
  • Feminine Orientalism or Modern Enchantment? Peiping and the Graphic Artists Elizabeth Keith and Bertha Lum, 1920s–1930s
    Claypool, Lisa
  • ‘We Don’t Sleep Around like White Girls Do’: Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Lives
    Espiritu, Yen Le
  • ‘To Care for Her Beauty, to Dress Up, Is a Kind of Work’: Simone de Beauvoir, Fashion, and Feminism
    Gibson, Pamela Church
  • Through Each Other’s Eyes: Egyptian, Levantine-Egyptian, and European Women’s Images of Themselves and of Each Other (1862–1920)
    Hatem, Mervat
  • Religion and Modernity: Gender and Identity Politics in Bangladesh
    Hussain, Naseem
  • Feminism, Nationalism, and Difference: Reflections on the Palestinian Women’s Movement
    Jacoby, Tami
  • ‘I Was Aggressive for the Streets, Pretty for the Pictures’: Gender, Difference, and the Inner-City Girl
    Jones, Nikki
  • The Great Chain of Orientalism: Jewish Identity, Stigma Management, and Ethnic Exclusion in Israel
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • Orientalism at the Gates: Immigration, the East/West Divide, and Elite Iraqi Jewish Women in Israel in the 1950s
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • The Kibbutz in Immigration Narratives of Bourgeois Iraqi and Polish Jews Who Immigrated to Israel in the 1950s
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • The Ethnic Script in Action: The Regrounding of Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel
    Lerner, Julia Rapoport, Tamar Lomsky-Feder, Edna
  • Prophets in Their Own Land? Mothers and Daughters of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
    Malino, Frances
  • Longing for the Aromas of Baghdad: Food, Emigration, and Transformation in the Lives of Iraqi Jews in Israel in the 1950s
    Meir-Glitzenstein, Esther Helman, Anat
  • ‘Liberation’ vs. ‘Purity’: Representations of Saudi Women in the American Press and American Women in the Saudi Press
    Mishra, Smeeta
  • Gender Identities and Social Action: Arab and Jewish Women in Israel
    Moore, Dahlia
  • Orientalism, Occidentalism, and the Control of Women
    Nader, Laura
  • Postcolonial Nationalism: Women and Retraditionalization in the Islamic Imaginary, Malaysia
    Ong, Aihwa Sutton, Constance R.
  • Authenticity and Gender: The Presentation of Culture
    Peteet, Julie M. Tucker, Judith E.
  • The Gender Logics of Resistance to the ‘War on Terror’: Constructing Sex-Gender Difference through the Erasure of Patriarchy in the Middle East
    Pratt, Nicola
  • Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: ‘Doing’ Gender across Cultural Worlds
    Pyke, Karen Johnson, Denise
  • Cultural Missionaries, Maternal Imperialists, Feminist Allies: British Women Activists in India, 1865–1945
    Ramusack, Barbara
  • New Imaginaries of Gender in Turkey’s Service Economy: Women Workers and Identity Making on the Sales Floor
    Sarıoğlu, Esra
  • Ethnic Generations: Evolving Ethnic Perceptions among Dominant Groups
    Sasson-Levy, Orna
  • Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims
    Shohat, Ella
  • The Construction of the ‘Traditional Chinese Woman’ in the Western Academy: A Critical Review
    Teng, Jinhua
  • Gender and Support for Islamist Movements: Evidence from Egypt, Kuwait, and Palestine
    Tessler, Mark Jesse, Jolene
  • ‘This Is What Is Done Abroad’: Model Others and the Construction of National Identity in the Parliamentary Discourse of Israel
    Troen, Judah
  • Feminism versus Multiculturalism
    Volpp, Leti
  • Gendered Secularity: The Feminine Individual in the 2010 Gerin Report
    Wesselhoeft, Kirsten
  • Doing Gender
    West, Candace Zimmerman, Don
  • ‘Orientalism’ and Middle East Feminist Studies
    Abu-Lughod, Lila
  • Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others
    Abu-Lughod, Lila
  • The Binary Ethnic Classification and the Economic Assimilation of First and Second Generation Immigrants in the Israeli Labor Market
    Amit, Karin
  • War, Resisting the West, and Women’s Labor: Toward an Understanding of Arab Exceptionalism
    Angrist, Michele
  • The Project of Modernity and Women in Turkey
    Arat, Yesim Bozdoğan, Sibel Kaşaba, Resat
  • International Feminism of the Future
    Barlow, Tani
  • ‘He Thought I Would Be like My Mother’: The Silencing of Mizrachi Women in Israeli Inter- and Intra-marriages
    Benjamin, Orly Barash, Tamar
  • ‘They Called Me Bebe Bwana’: A Critical Cultural Study of an Imperial Feminist
    Boisseau, T. J.
  • ‘Are You Trying to Play a White Woman?’: La Mère Patrie and the Female Body in French West Africa
    Boittin, Jennifer
  • Feminine Orientalism or Modern Enchantment? Peiping and the Graphic Artists Elizabeth Keith and Bertha Lum, 1920s–1930s
    Claypool, Lisa
  • ‘We Don’t Sleep Around like White Girls Do’: Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Lives
    Espiritu, Yen Le
  • ‘To Care for Her Beauty, to Dress Up, Is a Kind of Work’: Simone de Beauvoir, Fashion, and Feminism
    Gibson, Pamela Church
  • Through Each Other’s Eyes: Egyptian, Levantine-Egyptian, and European Women’s Images of Themselves and of Each Other (1862–1920)
    Hatem, Mervat
  • Religion and Modernity: Gender and Identity Politics in Bangladesh
    Hussain, Naseem
  • Feminism, Nationalism, and Difference: Reflections on the Palestinian Women’s Movement
    Jacoby, Tami
  • ‘I Was Aggressive for the Streets, Pretty for the Pictures’: Gender, Difference, and the Inner-City Girl
    Jones, Nikki
  • The Great Chain of Orientalism: Jewish Identity, Stigma Management, and Ethnic Exclusion in Israel
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • Orientalism at the Gates: Immigration, the East/West Divide, and Elite Iraqi Jewish Women in Israel in the 1950s
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • The Kibbutz in Immigration Narratives of Bourgeois Iraqi and Polish Jews Who Immigrated to Israel in the 1950s
    Khazzoom, Aziza
  • The Ethnic Script in Action: The Regrounding of Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel
    Lerner, Julia Rapoport, Tamar Lomsky-Feder, Edna
  • Prophets in Their Own Land? Mothers and Daughters of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
    Malino, Frances
  • Longing for the Aromas of Baghdad: Food, Emigration, and Transformation in the Lives of Iraqi Jews in Israel in the 1950s
    Meir-Glitzenstein, Esther Helman, Anat
  • ‘Liberation’ vs. ‘Purity’: Representations of Saudi Women in the American Press and American Women in the Saudi Press
    Mishra, Smeeta
  • Gender Identities and Social Action: Arab and Jewish Women in Israel
    Moore, Dahlia
  • Orientalism, Occidentalism, and the Control of Women
    Nader, Laura
  • Postcolonial Nationalism: Women and Retraditionalization in the Islamic Imaginary, Malaysia
    Ong, Aihwa Sutton, Constance R.
  • Authenticity and Gender: The Presentation of Culture
    Peteet, Julie M. Tucker, Judith E.
  • The Gender Logics of Resistance to the ‘War on Terror’: Constructing Sex-Gender Difference through the Erasure of Patriarchy in the Middle East
    Pratt, Nicola
  • Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: ‘Doing’ Gender across Cultural Worlds
    Pyke, Karen Johnson, Denise
  • Cultural Missionaries, Maternal Imperialists, Feminist Allies: British Women Activists in India, 1865–1945
    Ramusack, Barbara
  • New Imaginaries of Gender in Turkey’s Service Economy: Women Workers and Identity Making on the Sales Floor
    Sarıoğlu, Esra
  • Ethnic Generations: Evolving Ethnic Perceptions among Dominant Groups
    Sasson-Levy, Orna
  • Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims
    Shohat, Ella
  • The Construction of the ‘Traditional Chinese Woman’ in the Western Academy: A Critical Review
    Teng, Jinhua
  • Gender and Support for Islamist Movements: Evidence from Egypt, Kuwait, and Palestine
    Tessler, Mark Jesse, Jolene
  • ‘This Is What Is Done Abroad’: Model Others and the Construction of National Identity in the Parliamentary Discourse of Israel
    Troen, Judah
  • Feminism versus Multiculturalism
    Volpp, Leti
  • Gendered Secularity: The Feminine Individual in the 2010 Gerin Report
    Wesselhoeft, Kirsten
  • Doing Gender
    West, Candace Zimmerman, Don